Epoxy primer and filler.

Choosing a painter is trickier than we thought. We contacted a number of painters; Half of them never called back, so that was easy. Some of the remainder were reluctant to take on a full restoration respray from bare metal, as it wasn’t as profitable as insurance work. In the end, we had 4 painters who came to visit, and all of them seemed enthusiastic and knowledgeable- except for one who either had social anxiety, or had inhaled too much thinner. One of the painters was *too* knowledgable and a Mini enthusiast, and seemed a little disparaging of some of the non-standard features we’ve incorporated. So it came down to two painters, and they were both smart, enthusiastic, and came well recommended- but Sin from Benge Spraypainting and Restoration won us over when he said “So, how much of the work do you want to do yourself?” (The answer is: “whatever makes it cheaper without compromising the final result”)

Over at the paint shop we had to scrub the bare steel with Glasurit 360-4 metal cleaner to make it properly clean. It took 3 days, 20 metres of 3M scrubbing pad, a giant sack of clean rags, 2 litres of metal cleaner, and a couple of expensive but excellent respirators. An amazing amount of black gunk came out of the steel, and left it pale and glowing like pewter. Gorgeous! Now let’s hide it with black epoxy primer:

Apparently, the modern way of restoring a car is to use spray-on polyester filler, then sand it all back until the panels are smooth. We let the primer bake for a few days before scuffing it, masking, and applying the polyester filler.